Crossing Dreams
by Annette Silhouette
Summary: AU. A mysterious trick has played on Noctis and Lightning. Now they are trapped in each other's world, in each other's body. Chapter 3 up. NxL
1. Chapter 1

Morning birds were chirping cheerfully, as the first beam of raising sun softly glowed into the bedroom. Noctis sensed the light with his eyelids still closed, and inwardly felt curious about why sunlight could creep into his wholly-dark palace. Nevertheless, his curiosity soon faded away and he turned under the thin quilt, trying to continue his rest. He pressed his face deeper to the pillow, as his nose inhaled a special but pleasant smell from it... It was not the scent of the shampoo he always used, as he knew it by heart. Then what is it? Noctis asked in his mind. He was sure that he was sleeping in his own bedroom this night as ever... and with no one else...

In a moment, a morning breeze gently brew in the room, with a lock of hair tickling softly over his bare shoulder.

Hold on.

Noctis's heart skipped a beat.

He knew his hair was long... but it wasn't THAT long to reach his shoulder! And he swore he had not slept with bare chest. He did the buttons of his night shirt himself!

Noctis was totally awake now, but he was not willing to open his eyes. He'd rather close his eyes shut as long as possible or he didn't know what to say when facing what he feared to see. Still He knew he couldn't pretend to sleep forever, as 'what's done is done' and he could never escape from what he might have done wrong... After minutes of struggling, he tool a deep breathe and determined to open his eyes. He tried to build up the confidence to bear the responsibility in case he would be facing a...

He was facing a wall.

Noctis sat up immediately and turned his head to the other side. There was no one beside him as he had been sleeping on a single bed. He heaved a sigh of relief at first.

And he was stunned at the second thought.

Shouldn't his bed a king-sized one?

Noctis's jaw dropped agape as he scanned the room wholly once. It was much smaller bedroom then his, with wall painted in colour of wheat. There were a wooden wardrobe with some clothes hanging at the rim of its door frame, and a rather messy desk by the single bed. There was an opened window, with a plain khaki curtain flinging by the wind. He could glimpse the bright azure sky though it... The room is completely unknown to him and he had no clue about where it is and why he was there. In short, this wasn't his own bedroom. He was utterly in loss.

Noctis let his eyes wander enough in this small room, and then he unconsciously looked downwards. There he saw 'himself', wearing a pale orange tank top in a feminine body. He literally jumped. He held one lock of hair that rested on his slender shoulder, which is an amazing colour of strawberry-blonde. He tried to stifle the words but they have already escaped from his mouth. To his greatest fearful prediction, it was , though strong and not as high-pitched as he imagined, still a feminine voice,

"What the hell is going on?"


	2. Chapter 2

Crossing dreams

Chapter 2

Lightning's side

A/N: I use 'she' for Lightning in Noct's body ( same for using 'he' about Noct as Lightning) I hope it's not confusing.

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Slicing the tender meat into several pieces with a silver knife, Lightning then forked one of the delicate pieces into her mouth and chewed it . It had been probably the most glamorous breakfast she has ever had, with maids serving the food of the best quality in shining silver containers. She might have enjoyed the delicacy of the high-standard meal, if she didn't wake up in an unfamilar bed in someone's bedroom which was unusually large and dark. To make things worse, if not the worst, she had no clue why she had been trapped in this somebody's body, literally.

Before she was escorted to the changing room by the maids, Lightning has spent a long time gazing at the reflection from the mirror under the dim light. This stranger had a well-built frame who looked outstanding even under his pajamas. His muscles were lean but she could feel that they had been well-trained. Lightning had paid quite a lot of attention to his mane of hair with a unique grey-blue hue. His hairstyle kind of reminded her Hope's one, the same kind with fringing bangs framing the face, though this older man's was longer in her opinion. She wondered if this young man used to spend hours' time tackling with his bizarre hairstyle with a whole bottle of styling gel, as she brushed away the overgrown bangs from the eyes for the hundredth time.

Despite his appearance that she has seen through the mirror, what else did Lightning know about this young man? Well, she knew that he was rich, really rich. Who this man possibly could be, which his young age that Lightning bet not older than hers, could own a mansion as large as a palace and a whole crew of maids? If he were the son of a billionaire, how come she had never seen his face before? Or back to the fundamental question , that she could have felt satisfactory just to to the answer to this inquiry if not others: What has made her turning into this guy?

Lightning reached for the cup of tea and felt its radiating warmth and rich scent soothing her uneasy and bubbling mind a bit. She tried to suppress the uprising questions and start some logical thinking, at least about what to do next as she couldn't pretend having breakfast anymore... She had to take action to search for anything useful about the reason she was changed and what she could do to bring herself back to normal. If having a snoring sleep could put an end to this bizarre dream, she would gratefully do so. As a sensible and trained soldier, she wouldn't really walk straight towards the bedroom for that.

If this guy has had a changing room that big, he certainly had a library or office, where would be a good place to explore about the situation and the original identity she was now stuck into. Lightning decided to make the move and find out this office by herself, afterall she couldn't ask one of the maid," Hey do you know where my office is?" or they would think their young master was insane. She didn't want to raise any attention before she could get a clearer picture about what was really going on. This mansion was really big in her opinion, as large as a city hall, but not as enormous that she couldn't find the destination anyway. And she presumed that it would look natural for the master to wander in his own mansion.

Confirming her next step, Lightning stood up from the leather chair. Mouthing a 'thank you' to the responsible maid who walked up to collect the dishes, she walked off the dining room in the most natural way she could manage. She smoothly turned right when she walked past the floor, and she actually doubted it for the next second. She continued to walk along her chosen path and turned a few corners. She pushed some doors which only leaded to some vacant guestrooms and other rooms with unknown purposes. After about twenty minutes of wandering,she guessed she had walk at least a half round the mansion... only on the first floor. God knows how many rooms were in this mansion. She had to rejudge the applicability of her plan and whether she should find a map first or tactfully ask a maid about it...

Pondering deeply in her thought, Lightning had almost run into someone when she turned a corner, at which her reflex made a quick swift which saved her from the collision. While regaining balance after the swift motion, she was alerted by the sight of a shotgun held at the back of the tall stranger, and immediately reached to the usual place of her weapon was ( and she cursed inwardly when her hand only snatched the air.)

'' Whooh watch out, Noct!" said the stranger.

Is he adressing me? And this guy I'm in is named Noct? Lighning wasn't so sure and she decided not to respond but eyed at him cautiously. Friend or foe? Yet to be judged...

" You okay? Still sleepy, eh?"

Lightning mentally winced at the chirpy tune by this man. His grin showed him sparkling white teeth and his waves of blond hair fluttered like radiating sunshine. This young man had more an expression of a boy meeting his dear friend over a trained assassin... except the metallic deadly weapon he was carrying, which was really stinging her eyes especially when she didn't had her own weapon armed.

The stranger seemed not to fear Lightning's glare, instead he slightly bent his neck ( This guy was still taller than this 'Noct' she was in) and waved his hand right before Lightning's eyes. She recoiled like a scared animal, which was much due to her soldiery reflex in fear of possible throwing daggers or needles by this blondie.

" Are you okay, Noct? You look so... tensed..." asked Blond. It seemed he was just waving at her to check if his friend was okay. He was now more like a puppy being abandoned by his master, thought Lightning inwardly, as she started to think that this Blond could be really a dear friend to 'Noct'.

Lightning inched closer to Blond, fumbling for proper words to say. " Er..." She was startled with her newly acquired male voice." I didn't sleep well today..." Lightning thought hard for an excuse. " I've got... nightmare." Well, she'd rather let this be a nightmare.

" Really?" Blond looked up ( actually looked down from his height) at her, blue eyes meeting her gaze though the strands of blond hair. ( She wondered why the males here in this mansion love to keep longish and messy hairstyle. Both Blond and this Noct do. Not that it looks bad anyway...) She didn't understand why her thought would trail off like that, afterall this morning should have been overwhelming enough for her to think of complaints for complete strangers' hairstyle. Blondie chuckled bemusedly, " It must be a really bad dream then, Noct. "

Lightning must have given a confused look as Blond added, " Your hair. It's different when you don't style it..." He gave a lop-sided smile as if he was embarrassed at what he said but tried not to show it. Lightning wasn't quite sure how to react, then Blondie spoke again, " I thought we might go out and have some fun today... Now that you aren't feeling well today, would you like to stay in the castle?"

'' I would like to... do some reading in the library..." said Lightning discreetly, trying to sound causal and polite. She didn't have a clue how this Noct was usually like... Was he as sunshine-ish as his friend? " If that is fine to you?"

'' Hmmmm Library, eh?" sighed Blond before he took a bow with a charming grin on his already charming face. " Shall we, Your Highness?"

Lightning thought that this Noct's friend addressing her as 'Your Highness ' was an attempt to make fun and look dramatic. Only later did she find out that Noctis Lucis Caelum was actually a prince himself.

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Update: Last paragraph edited for the later chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Crossing Dreams

Chapter 3

Back to Normal

A/N: For my first-ever beta-reader **Alrynnas**, who has kindly edited this chapter and accepted to help for the following chatpers.

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Eyelids snapping open, he jerked up from the nightmare and panted heavily. With his eyes still adjusting to the darkness, Noctis touched the sheets around him, then the pajama he was in. They felt like a running stream straining heat from his hands. He raised his palm up to brush away the bang that was plastered on his sweaty forehead, and went on to stroke along the rim of his face... And his face it was.

So he was himself again. In his bedroom. In his castle.

Leaving his bed, he turned on some lights and walked up hesitantly to the mirror he usually checked his hair with. He could hear his own heartbeat, throbbing more and more violently with every step that he took to move closer to the reflection- that was himself.

Not a strawberry-blonde-haired woman with eyes that sparkled like aquamarines.

"A Dream...? " Noctis had not realised that he had muttered his thought until he heard his own voice .

Not a female voice which was metal brushing past silk, or the other way round.

Could it be really have been a dream? He remembered her face and her voice so clearly... as if...

he was her.

"And how could that be...?" He heard himself saying his thought aloud again. It was a side-effect of locking himself in a room back in that dream...

Sighing, he went to take a quick bath in hopes of calming himself slightly. Under the running water that chilled his skin, he might have said something like 'That was just a dream' for a hundred times. When he stepped out of the bathroom, the prince had successfully convinced himself that it was a dream, a dream too bizarre and realistic, and that was that.

_Now I just need to catch some sleep and wake up new and fresh in the morning... _Noctis told himself as he was changing into a new set of pajama_s. Prompto said he would go to the 13th street with me and-_

_why is the clock showing 02:34 of the next day?_

Leaving the buttons of his pajama halfway done, the prince snatched the electronic clock from the bedside table and examined it closer. His eyes didn't play tricks on him, nor did the clock itself as it flashed the digital numbers innocently. Something, someone was playing a trick on him. The assurance that he had difficultly built up collapsed in a fraction of a second, and he thought he was really losing his sanity. What was going on?

Placing the clock back to its place, the prince noticed a folded paper and a pen resting on the bedside table as well. He could see the blue rim that made the paper a royal letterpaper, and the gold-plated decorative engravings on the pen. The stationery were something that were rare and expensive outside, yet so common in this palace, since they were for the imperial use only.

But he didn't have memory of putting them on the bedside table.

Confused, Noctis sat by the edge of his bed and unfolded the scrap of paper. What caught his eye was the his own name- Noctis Lucis Caelum- written in slightly-inclined, slim characters. Below it was his nickname "Noct" circled with a quick loop. A 'Prince of a Kingdom' was swiftly scrawled near it. A quick slash by the pen marked another section, 'Blond' and 'Shotgun' were written in this area, both the trademark of Noct's good friend. Only his name was misspelled as "Pronto". Immediately, Noctis picked up the pen to scratch it out and write the correct spelling beneath it, wondering why he had done so a split-second later.

Someone spelled Prompto wrongly on this paper in his bedroom... But who?

... Could it be her?

The image of the strawberry-blonde young lady surfaced again in his mind, causing his heart to skip a beat. He was down-rightly dumbfounded by his own bizarre idea. What was it again? Soul Exchange? How could that possibly happen? He would have laughed at the idea if it was from somebody else and he had not experienced in the flesh.

''Whatever it is, it's over," his subconscious mind kindly reminded him, rescuing him from the borderless sea of popping thoughts and guesses. Even if the dream of becoming a beautiful rose-haired maiden had been true- not that he had been convinced that it was real- what else could he do with it? When everything was back to normal, why should he poke his nose into it- to welcome a more bizarre disaster for himself?

Noctis crumpled the piece of paper into a ball and threw it to the ground by the end of the bed. Only a moment later he hesitantly stood up from the edge of the bed to pick it up, then smoothed the wrinkled paper out as best he could, and placed it into a drawer of the bedside table. Flicking off the lights, the prince threw himself onto the bed with a thud, in an attempt to push every thought away for a dreamless rest. He looked at the darkness, something that he liked about his curtain-enclosed bedroom.

"Maybe... I should find out who the woman is." This idea popped in his head, but he suppressed it back a second later as he blinked his tired eyes. His mind slowly drifting away, he silently murmured to himself, "I should do so after I wake up. When I wake up... everything will be back to normal again..."


End file.
